Celebrating the launch of Veterans’ Voices

On the 18th September, The Stoll Foundation invited residents, staff, partners and local people to celebrate the launch of an exciting new heritage project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund: Veterans’ Voices: 100 Years of Housing Heroes.

Last year, The Stoll Foundation received a significant grant to run Veterans’ Voices: 100 Years of Housing Heroes, a 2.5-year project exploring the charity’s rich heritage. The project, which runs until 2028, will explore the history of our charity which was founded in 1916 by theatre impresario Sir Oswald Stoll to support severely disabled soldiers as they returned home from the front lines of the First World War.

After a period of set up, including recruiting volunteers, and beginning to explore and catalogue the Foundation’s vast on-site archive, we officially launched the project to our residents and local community last month.

The launch event featured stalls showcasing background information about the history of our charity, insights into some of our residents from across the last century, and a range of fascinating original documents, photographs, drawings, and paintings from our archive. Of particular note were the posters created by Victorian satirist Harry Furniss to help raise money to build the Foundation’s historic mansions. Furniss, who was better known for illustrating Punch magazine and the children’s books of Lewis Carroll, offered his creative services to several wartime charitable endeavours and his posters depicting life at the Mansions for wounded soldiers and their families helped stimulate the sale of War Seals.

Former residents who had not previously been identified include Frank and Elsie Cox. Frank served as a private in the Royal Marine Light Infantry until he was wounded in the Dardanelles. After being nursed by Elsie (née Wright), he became an internationally-famous wheelchair racer. They came to live at Stoll Mansions in 1926, a year after their marriage, which was covered by international newspapers. Upon Frank’s death in 1970, Elsie set up a fund in his honour to benefit the Foundation’s clinic, which provided free medical care to residents from its creation until well after the establishment of the NHS.

Visitors had an opportunity to handle archival documents relating to these and other episodes in the Foundation’s history, while finding out more about upcoming events and volunteering positions that will be available as part of the project.
Over the last few months, volunteers have been cataloguing The Stoll Foundation’s valuable and entirely unused archive relating to the history of its operations, residents, and buildings from 1915-1986. Upon the completion of this work, researchers interested in the histories of social welfare, veterans’ services after the First World War, the contribution of theatre and the arts to the war effort, women’s work, early twentieth-century philanthropy, and many other topics will be able to access the newly-catalogued archive in the Hammersmith and Fulham local archives from 2028.

The project is actively recruiting volunteers from amongst our residents and from the local Fulham community, who are encouraged to express their interest by emailing heritage@stoll.org.uk.

Find out more about the Veterans’ Voices project here.

Sign up here to receive updates and event invitations from the Veterans’ Voices Project.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Veterans’ Voices is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to explore the lost stories of veterans from across our hundred year history.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK’s heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players we support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.